From the issue dated October 1, 2004
THE FACULTY
THE DENIED DOZEN
At the University of North Texas, a wave of tenure rejections has left faculty members uncertain and angry. Administrators say it's a matter of striving for excellence.
MAKING POINTS
When grading drives students around the bend, it may be instructive to take them Around the Horn, writes Michael Bérubé, a professor of English at Penn State.
MISSING SUMMER ALREADY
Back on the campus, an assistant professor mulls the wisdom of the faculty tradition of summers off.
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- SYLLABUS: Syracuse University! Caught in the act of offering a course in celebrity journalism!
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- SHRINKING WINDOW: Twenty-six female professors have written to Harvard's president to complain of a sharp decline in the number of tenure offers to women in the past three years.
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- PLAGIARISM'S PENALTY: A fine-arts professor at Parsons School of Design resigned after admitting that he had copied sections of one of his books from a nine-year-old monograph.
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- PEER REVIEW: Stanford University snags the sociologist Lawrence D. Bobo, who studies the social psychology of race, from Harvard University. ... Susan L. Lindquist, a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will step down early as director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research to return to full-time research. ... The dean of freshmen at Harvard University will leave her post next summer, and no one is saying why.
RESEARCH & PUBLISHING
THE WRITER'S TALE
The founder of the New Historicism school of literary criticism, in writing a biography of Shakespeare, follows a paper trail that links his life, his beliefs, and his morality.
STEM-CELL RESEARCH MAKES HEADWAY
Despite the Bush administration's strict limits on federal support, the field is growing -- at least for now.
- POLITICS AND THE LAB: Stem cells take a prominent role in California politics and in the presidential race.
COMMON GROUND FOR SCIENCE?
The developers of an alternative copyright system to make literature, music, films, and scholarship freely available say patents and commercialization stymie scientific research.
L'CHAIM
In the celebration of the 350th anniversary of Jewish life in America, scholars are lighting some of the most illuminating candles, writes Jonathan D. Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University.
EXPLOSIVE SITUATION
Two books emphasize that as the world's oil dependence deepens, we're increasingly putting out geopolitical fires with gasoline, writes Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle's editor at large.
IDEALS ON DISPLAY
Two new history museums -- the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center -- emphasize objectives over objects, writes Julia M. Klein, a cultural reporter and critic.
A COSTLY MISPERCEPTION
The problem with journals isn't access or payment structures; it's their exorbitant prices. Only when we're clear about that can we start to find solutions, writes John H. Ewing, executive director of the American Mathematical Society.
DITCH THE BOYFRIEND
Does a woman have to follow "the rules" to be successful in academic science?
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- VERBATIM: A political-science professor at Hampden-Sydney College discusses Václav Havel and the role of civil society in the Czech Republic.
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- HOT TYPE: Four books by or about the late literary scholar and political activist Edward W. Said have recently been published.
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- NO PAGE TURNER: The State University of New York at Buffalo's foundry produced a one-ton bronze book featuring castings of important buildings in Buffalo and a timeline of the city's history.
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- TO YOUR HEALTH: A medical researcher is seeking overweight volunteers to drink a glass and a half a day of South Africa's best red wine.
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- NOTA BENE: The Salem witch trials reveal little about colonial New Englanders' varied and often cautious response to accusations of the occult, says a history professor at the University of Miami.
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- PLAGIARISM'S PENALTY: A fine-arts professor at Parsons School of Design resigned after admitting that he had copied sections of one of his books from a nine-year-old monograph.
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- MONEY FOR RESEARCH: The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has approved legislation that would increase spending at the National Science Foundation by 3 percent and provide $300-million for the Hubble Space Telescope.
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- OPEN-SOURCE OFFERING: Cornell University will release open-source software designed to help colleges, academic presses, and libraries publish journals and monographs electronically.
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- NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
TUSSLE OVER A LOOPHOLE
A Congressional agency seeks to stop student-loan providers from reaping windfall profits at the government's expense, while the Bush administration pleads helplessness.
STEM-CELL RESEARCH MAKES HEADWAY
Despite the Bush administration's strict limits on federal support, the field is growing -- at least for now.
- POLITICS AND THE LAB: Stem cells take a prominent role in California politics and in the presidential race.
TALL TALES
Are voters really shallow enough to judge presidential stature by, well, presidential stature? There's a long tradition of taking a man's measure by his measurements, writes Edward Tenner, of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
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- RECRUITING UNDER WAY: Among scientists who favor a presidential candidate, political activity and donation records show that most of them fervently support Sen. John Kerry.
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- LIMITED CHOICES: Most students from low-income families never consider going to college, and those who do tend to go to community and for-profit colleges, a report has found.
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- MONEY FOR RESEARCH: The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has approved legislation that would increase spending at the National Science Foundation by 3 percent and provide $300-million for the Hubble Space Telescope.
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- MIFFED OVER MERGERS: The board of the University of Maine System has unanimously approved a scaled-back version of a controversial reorganization, despite opposition from some state lawmakers.
MONEY & MANAGEMENT
COLUMBIA'S BIG BITE
The university plans a $5-billion expansion into a Harlem neighborhood, which is not entirely happy at the prospect.
A SENSE OF HUMUS
College-grounds managers are turning to organic materials to create more environmentally friendly landscapes.
THE CREATIVITY INDEX
Why not measure how creative a college is? Surely that's more important than its alcohol consumption or sports performances, and we rank those, writes Steven J. Tepper, an assistant professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University.
WELCOMING REMARKS
Delivering the opening comments at a meeting joins death and taxes on the list of things no administrator can avoid.
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- WHAT'S IN A NAME: As part of a marketing plan, the University of Kansas is having its official seal redesigned with a modern touch.
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- CHRISTIAN LAW: Liberty University, founded by the evangelist Jerry Falwell, is opening a law school that he says "will be as far to the right as Harvard is to the left."
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- STICKY OUSTER: The foundation once responsible for raising money and managing $4.5-million in assets for Santa Fe Community College is suing the New Mexico institution.
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- STEPPING DOWN: The president of Saint Mary's College of California resigned after a donor reneged on a series of pledges worth $112-million.
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- 'INFORMAL INQUIRY': The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the financial practices of Corinthian Colleges Inc.
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- IN OTHER NEWS: Fake parking tickets, bovine Sapphism, and a gifted graffitist.
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- PEER REVIEW: Stanford University snags the sociologist Lawrence D. Bobo, who studies the social psychology of race, from Harvard University. ... Susan L. Lindquist, a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will step down early as director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research to return to full-time research. ... The dean of freshmen at Harvard University will leave her post next summer, and no one is saying why.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
COMMON GROUND FOR SCIENCE?
The developers of an alternative copyright system to make literature, music, films, and scholarship freely available say patents and commercialization stymie scientific research.
- CREATIVE COMMONS: The effort to get artists and scholars to give up control of their works so that they can be freely distributed has been slow to get off the ground.
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- OPENING A DOOR: A student newspaper assembled by American Indian students across the country is designed to help them find their way into journalism.
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- MISSING PAYDAYS: More than 200 graduate assistants at the University of Florida did not receive paychecks for almost a month, in part because of problems with the university's PeopleSoft payroll software.
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- OPEN-SOURCE OFFERING: Cornell University will release open-source software designed to help colleges, academic presses, and libraries publish journals and monographs electronically.
STUDENTS
NOT-QUITE-ROYAL TREATMENT
To comply with a new rule from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, colleges have dropped the use of hostesses in recruiting athletes.
TUSSLE OVER A LOOPHOLE
A Congressional agency seeks to stop student-loan providers from reaping windfall profits at the government's expense, while the Bush administration pleads helplessness.
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- PARTISAN SCENE: When California State University at San Marcos canceled a campus appearance by the filmmaker Michael Moore, students collected money to invite the director of Fahrenheit 9/11 to speak.
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- SEPARATE AND UNHEALTHY: The lack of racial diversity in the health-care professions puts at least one-third of the U.S. population at risk, according to a report.
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- LIMITED CHOICES: Most students from low-income families never consider going to college, and those who do tend to go to community and for-profit colleges, a report has found.
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- OPENING A DOOR: A student newspaper assembled by American Indian students across the country is designed to help them find their way into journalism.
ATHLETICS
NOT-QUITE-ROYAL TREATMENT
To comply with a new rule from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, colleges have dropped the use of hostesses in recruiting athletes.
SWINGING FOR SCIENCE
A professor at Washington State University works with the American Softball Association to determine what qualities a bat needs to ensure that balls are hit at safe speeds.
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- MASCOT WATCH: A beeve, a beaver, and two American Indians head into retirement.
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- NEW DIRECTOR SOUGHT: Brigham Young University said it would merge its men's and women's athletics programs into one, leaving only two members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I-A with functionally separate men's and women's sports programs.
INTERNATIONAL
THE BIG TEST
Russia's version of the SAT promises to bring fairness to a corrupt college-admissions process, but some academics don't want to cede control.
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- CONTINENTAL EDUCATION: If they had it to do again, most British parents would recommend that their children skip college and instead learn a trade or travel abroad, an airline's survey found.
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- SPECIAL TRAINING: California Western School of Law ran workshops in Chile to teach prosecutors and law-enforcement groups about intellectual-property issues.
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- SPREADING THE WORD: A group of American Catholic college administrators played host to African nuns at a conference to help religious women on both sides of the Atlantic design educational programs in Africa.
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- MORE LIKE AMERICA? Sweeping changes in British college-admissions procedures have been proposed in a report commissioned by the government.
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- DARING OPEN LETTER: A law professor in Beijing has called for the reversal of the Chinese government's decision to shut down a popular online bulletin board.
NOTES FROM ACADEME
SWINGING FOR SCIENCE
A professor at Washington State University works with the American Softball Association to determine what qualities a bat needs to ensure that balls are hit at safe speeds.
THE CHRONICLE REVIEW
MAKING POINTS
When grading drives students around the bend, it may be instructive to take them Around the Horn, writes Michael Bérubé, a professor of English at Penn State.
THE CREATIVITY INDEX
Why not measure how creative a college is? Surely that's more important than its alcohol consumption or sports performances, and we rank those, writes Steven J. Tepper, an assistant professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University.
L'CHAIM
In the celebration of the 350th anniversary of Jewish life in America, scholars are lighting some of the most illuminating candles, writes Jonathan D. Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University.
EXPLOSIVE SITUATION
Two books emphasize that as the world's oil dependence deepens, we're increasingly putting out geopolitical fires with gasoline, writes Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle's editor at large.
TALL TALES
Are voters really shallow enough to judge presidential stature by, well, presidential stature? There's a long tradition of taking a man's measure by his measurements, writes Edward Tenner, of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
IDEALS ON DISPLAY
Two new history museums -- the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center -- emphasize objectives over objects, writes Julia M. Klein, a cultural reporter and critic.
BOLD STROKES
Even among the groundbreaking artists of the late-19th-century Belgian avant-garde, Fernand Khnopff stood out for his striking composition, superb technique, and enigmatic imagery.
A COSTLY MISPERCEPTION
The problem with journals isn't access or payment structures; it's their exorbitant prices. Only when we're clear about that can we start to find solutions, writes John H. Ewing, executive director of the American Mathematical Society.
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- MELANGE: Selections from recent books of interest to academe.
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- EX LIBRIS: An excerpt from Charlemagne: Father of a Continent.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CHRONICLE CAREERS
WELCOMING REMARKS
Delivering the opening comments at a meeting joins death and taxes on the list of things no administrator can avoid.
MISSING SUMMER ALREADY
Back on the campus, an assistant professor mulls the wisdom of the faculty tradition of summers off.
DITCH THE BOYFRIEND
Does a woman have to follow "the rules" to be successful in academic science?
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- ACADEMIC JOB FORUM: A discussion forum on the job search in higher education.
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- DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS, including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe
GAZETTE
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